The Phillies are 4 games out of the Wild Card with 14 to play.The Phillies can only control their own destiny, as they’re back at the .500 mark.

Cole Hamels is 4-0 in his last seven starts, and has not been tacked with a loss since August 2. Hamels has struggled against the Mets throughout his career, going 5-10 with a 4.39 ERA.

Hamels will be opposed by rookie Matt Harvey, who is making his last start of the season as he reaches closer to his innings limit.Harvey has pitched well this season, including a start against the Phillies. In that outing on August 29, Harvey tossed 6.1 innings, allowing just 2 earned runs.

All eyes are on Jimmy Rollins. The shortstop is batting .333 with 5 home runs and 7 stolen bases in September. Rollins loves the attention in New York, and is a career .282 hitter against the Mets.

Your Gameday Beer – Brew Free! or Die IPA
This libertarian beer is brewed by the 21st Amendment Brewery just down the street from AT&T Park in San Francisco and recently became available here in the Northeast. Not surprisingly, this IPA is aggressive on the hops and bitterness. If you drink it cold however, it can be a very enjoyable experience. Pair its strong flavors with some not-too-spicy chicken tikka. – By Brian

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0 Comments

Ken Bland

September 19, 2012 at 7:17 pm

Pretty nice 5 minute interval there.Nats finish off the Dodgers in Game 1, and Jimmy…well, what the heck can you say about him at this point. If you told me he could finish the year with 25 dingers, almost to any point, including recently, I’d have laughed. Hell, maybe he’s the cleanup answer.

With Howard and Utley out in April and May, Jimmy did bat third quite often. It’s remarkable that he has this many HR’s yet didn’t hit his first homer until May 13th. It’s also notable that all his home runs have been hit in the lead off spot. Strange but true.

“I think we have some real good pieces there,” Charlie Manuel said before Wednesday’s game against the Mets at Citi Field. “But I think we need at least one good piece. And when I talk about pieces, I mean someone that’s very, very good. First-class good. That’s what it takes to be a first-class team.”

Question: Who is Ryan Madson. Guess who had a first class team when Madson pitched here? Might be living in the past, but that’s my boy.

That part of the problem is rectified in 20 seconds. Questions above all is does Ryan insist on trying to close, and off TJ, will he get an offer for next year allowing for it. I just don’t make the alleged sloppiness of the departure that big a deal.

Yeah, Jimmy “hit” 3rd. But man, what a job. 2o homers and 20 SB since 6/1, in rarified air as only Trout’s done that.

That’snreal. I was hoping they’d get to Howard with men on to see if he could pick on a mistake, and get some confidence going. Tough break ror JP, not a bad guy to have up in that situation. Good thing Jimmy hit that homer.

Can we PLEASE give the man his due? You take the strikeouts, you take the ugly at bats against lefties because he is the only guy on this team that can strike fear in the opponent. He can change the game with one swing and he DRIVES IN RUNS.

AFW. Good thing Ryan is not a star and can not hit in the 7 8 or9th inning against a lefty. Yea yea it is a 1 in 100 chance he does that but that is a pretty big spot to do it you can go back in your hole now

Good 9th pap and yes can we put to end that Howard can not be clutch. 216 go ahead RBI since 2008 is that pretty good right. AFW it’s time for you tell how called that shot in June and how much you think Howard is a stud oh that’s right you are a closet Mets fan

AFW… He is our star. He’s a huge reason why those banners are hanging out in Ashburn Alley. His absence this year is why we are struggling… He is the big piece. You focus on his flaws but fail to recognize his strengths- he drives in runs. That’s his job. That’s what we missed earlier this year. You suggested a platoon of Mayberry/Wigginton- well, Wigg struck out in his at bat and Mayberry did a whole lot of nothing tonight. In fact, he GIDP’d again. You can have your Wigg-JMJ-Nix platoon. I’ll take Howard… For better and for worse. He drives me nuts with bad at bats but he crushes mistakes and drives in runs and that’s more than any slop platoon you’re throwing out there.

Still can’t give him credit you are a joke 226 go ahead RBIs in late innings in 34 years not many do that and how about game 1 last year he. Won that game too and I remember a double on a windy day in 10 in the playoffs that was a go ahead RBI so take your sellfctive memory and cheer for your mets

The phillies are finishing the easiest end of their schedule. They will not even finish 500.remember the meg’s are one of the worst teams in baseball and they won the season series and they just lost 3 of 4 to the astros so the phillies are indeed done.

Sorry to burst your bubble. Most teams are mathematically alive. Reality is the Phil’s are an old team with aging pitchers and many bad contracts. Phil’s won one title during their window but should have won 2 or 3. Now nationals and braves will be domanant and in a couple of years the mets. Phil’s need to rebuild.

Look I am not use to responding to posts. It just seems like the phillies fans are really dreaming. Look forget about those stats. The phillies had one of the most incredible teams for a couple of years. They should have won the last two world series. Something went wrong. Maybe it was the way they were managed or maybe the passion was not there. When the Yankees had those great teams they won. So forget about stats. They should have won and now it is just false hope. They are no longer dominant.

I don’t think there is any justification for saying they “should have won”.

If someone believes they should have won in 2010 and 2011 because they were the best team, then they must also believe they should NOT have won in 2008. Obviously the best team doesn’t always win it all, and in fact usually doesn’t win it all.

I hear what you are and agree to most of it. But they literally had an allstar pitching staff. It is really hard to believe that doc and cliff probably will not win it all here. One more thing. Everyone praises Jimmy rollings because he obviously now has passion. Where was it in the first half. That alone could have made a Hugh difference.

When you play with passion youlove what you are doing and it shows. Have you ever seen how Bryce Harper plays. He plays hard and runs hard on every play. You can tell he has so much passion. Everyone is different but you can also tell when someone is going thru the motions. This team had a lot of injuries this year and I think if a leader lead with passion it could have made the difference in many games.

No offense, but I think that’s a bunch of cr@p. I don’t see any difference in his demeanor. I think the passion was always there, but when you’re not hitting well, if you’re not the type who slams a helmet, it looks like you’re not trying and don’t care.